


Defense

by Mad_Maudlin



Category: Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-23
Updated: 2010-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-06 14:51:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Maudlin/pseuds/Mad_Maudlin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The doctor has a request.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defense

"I want you to teach me how to shoot."

Jayne's hearin ain't what it used to be, on account of all the shootin he's done in enclosed spaces and the like, but he knows he heard that one just fine. Just don't believe what Doc's sayin. "Huh?"

"I want to be able to shoot and actually hit what I'm aiming for," Doc says, talkin slow like Jayne's stupid or something. "And I want you to teach me how."

This don't sound like any kind of ending-well to Jayne's ears. "Why?" he asks.

"Why do I want to learn, or why am I asking you?"

"Yeah."

Doc sighs. "I'm asking you because I don't want to impose on Zoe and I suspect the captain would not be amenable to the idea."

Jayne don't exactly know what _amenable_ means, and he thinks that maybe Zoe needs some imposition on account of how she stares at nothin when she don't got work in her hands and sometimes when she does. But he'll take the Doc's reasonin for now. "What about your sister?"

"What about her?"

"Can't she teach you what you want to learn?" 'Cause hell, Jayne'd never admit it aloud, but there's a thing or two or a zillion he'd like to figure out how she did it himself.

Doc shakes his head though. "Mal has requested," he says, with kind of a funny stress on the word, "that I keep weapons out of River's hands unless there's an emergency or a job."

Jayne ain't arguing that a bit. "Okay. But why the hell you want to know, anyway?"

Doc's eyes go kinda dizzy and unfocused-like, and there's a muscle twitchin in his jaw, just a little. It's like he's giving an evil look to someone over Jayne's left shoulder, 'cept there ain't nothin there but a bulkhead, and it never did nothing to bother the doc. "I've come to see certain ideas that I had previously adhered to as luxuries which are unfit for our current situation," he says, with a different kind of slow, like he's trying to say something without saying something. "Under the circumstances, some of my previous beliefs seem to require a little revision in order to remain viable."

Jayne says, "Huh?"

Doc blinks, and smiles half-way like; it kinda reminds Jayne of Mal, for some damn reason. "I'm embarrassed that my little sister fights better than me," he says, and Jayne don't need Inara to tell him the doc's lying through his pretty white teeth. "Are you willing or not?"

It don't sound like a good idea any way Jayne thinks of it. He's seen dyin folk had better aim than the doc; it'd more 'n likely be a waste of good ammo to bother with it. Plus, he don't like the sound of Doc's crazy high-sounding talk about viables—it don't sound like the kind of thing a man wants to hear from behind a gun. Sounds like a problem for a preacher, not Jayne Cobb, 'cept the Shepherd is dead and buried and Simon's still lookin at him with his eyebrows up, waitin.

"What's in it for me?"

Simon hands him a little bottle of sake—little, but it's the good shit, not the stuff Kaylee uses to clean engine parts. Jayne don't know where the hell the doc coulda got it from, but most of his own stash is just a step over mudder's milk, and he's got a hankerin for something that don't taste like the oil drum it was brewed in. "Surely that's good enough for a couple of lessons?" Doc asks.

Jayne shrugs. "Depends on how bad you are. I ain't wastin my time or my bullets on you."

Doc just nodded. "I'll try my best."


End file.
